I remember watching NFL preseason games and marveled at how many players got hurt on kickoffs and I wouldn't miss watching kickoffs since we wouldn't have to spend time waiting for an injuried player to take their time getting back to the sideline unless that player is carted off. Anyone note that people are getting hurt more often on kickoff returns.

That was before the NFL moved back the kickoffs to the 35 yard line so there would be more touchbacks.

Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano's idea is as follows:

This is Schiano’s plan: Replace all kickoffs with a punting situation, including after the opening coin toss and to start the second half. So, as an example, when Team A scores a touchdown, it immediately gets the ball back on a fourth and 15 from its own 30-yard line.

It can punt it back to Team B — the most likely outcome and a safer play since the bigger collisions usually happen on kickoffs.

Or it can line up and go for the first down, essentially replacing an onside kick with an offensive play that would require more skill than luck.

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Can anyone imagine football with no kickoffs? It would be difficult to do since it's awesome to see those long kickoff returns but player safety is an issue these days. The idea of using skill instead of luck is a very appealing one.

Yes, and let's get rid of blocking and tackling, and then put flags on everybody and say you can't touch anyone except with an open hand and above the waist unless you are grabbing the flag from the ballcarrier.

And while we are at it let's ban jumping in basketball since lots of guys get hurt while jumping, and in baseball we need to change the ball for one made out of sponge rubber and use hollow plastic bats like wiffleball bats.

Injuries are going to happen in sports, take away the injuries and you don't have the sport. This doesn't say that certain rules couldn't be changed to make it safer. The pros eliminating to "wall of blockers" last year helped a lot. Maybe if you line up the front line of the return team within a couple of yards of the KO line so guys aren't colliding with a full head of steam it would help.

At the same time to take out parts of the game because they are "dangerous" leads down a really ugly road to a point where we are all playing badmitton or croque because they are "safe."

Yes, and let's get rid of blocking and tackling, and then put flags on everybody and say you can't touch anyone except with an open hand and above the waist unless you are grabbing the flag from the ballcarrier.

And while we are at it let's ban jumping in basketball since lots of guys get hurt while jumping, and in baseball we need to change the ball for one made out of sponge rubber and use hollow plastic bats like wiffleball bats.

Injuries are going to happen in sports, take away the injuries and you don't have the sport. This doesn't say that certain rules couldn't be changed to make it safer. The pros eliminating to "wall of blockers" last year helped a lot. Maybe if you line up the front line of the return team within a couple of yards of the KO line so guys aren't colliding with a full head of steam it would help.

At the same time to take out parts of the game because they are "dangerous" leads down a really ugly road to a point where we are all playing badmitton or croque because they are "safe."

Sure I'll be in the overwhelming minority here, but I read the article and I think it has some merit. It will be tough to convince millions of fans who love the violent collisions and thrilling returns but they are not gladiators and this isn't Rome. They are compensated extremely well and willingly take the risk but the players safety should receive some consideration.

Yes, and let's get rid of blocking and tackling, and then put flags on everybody and say you can't touch anyone except with an open hand and above the waist unless you are grabbing the flag from the ballcarrier.

And while we are at it let's ban jumping in basketball since lots of guys get hurt while jumping, and in baseball we need to change the ball for one made out of sponge rubber and use hollow plastic bats like wiffleball bats.

Injuries are going to happen in sports, take away the injuries and you don't have the sport. This doesn't say that certain rules couldn't be changed to make it safer. The pros eliminating to "wall of blockers" last year helped a lot. Maybe if you line up the front line of the return team within a couple of yards of the KO line so guys aren't colliding with a full head of steam it would help.

At the same time to take out parts of the game because they are "dangerous" leads down a really ugly road to a point where we are all playing badmitton or croque because they are "safe."

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And all the flags should be rainbow colored. And the players should wear speedoes and midriff shirts. No matter how gay they make it, football will still be dangerous. All sports are dangerous. The worst sports injury I ever suffered I got playing disc golf. I know others with permanent impairment from playing softball. I love football because it is violent and dangerous. It's a good recipe, let's not **** with it.

Yes, do it yesterday. I believe that due to recent rule changes the offense, especially the pass offense in the NFL, is at a severe disadvantage. Unlike 30 years ago, where QBs and WRs were protected from blood thirsty and pillaging defenses and you weren´t allowed to touch QBs and WRs got pass interference calls when a DB looked at them, the offense is at a severe disadvtange nowadays where QBs can be treated like rag dolls by DEs and WRs can be body slammed at the line with no flags thrown.

Football is a game of 3 phases and Special Teams are generally the forgotten one anyway and while I realize how dangerous kickoff returns can be Special Teams shouldn´t be marginalized any further and the last thing the game needs, especially in the NFL, is more tailor made rules for high octane pass offenses.

Sure I'll be in the overwhelming minority here, but I read the article and I think it has some merit. It will be tough to convince millions of fans who love the violent collisions and thrilling returns but they are not gladiators and this isn't Rome. They are compensated extremely well and willingly take the risk but the players safety should receive some consideration.

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This is Rome, and they are our gladiators...if there ever was a time where bread and circuses returned, it is now.

Now, I know what your initial reaction is going to be, because it was my first reaction, too. You're thinking, This is a terrible idea. This will irrevocably alter football as we know it. Or, if you are either a 17-year-old kickoff return specialist or a member of a fight club, you're thinking, Football is an inherently violent game, and this is a misguided attempt to legislate around the violence.

But let us separate ourselves from the issue of debilitating injuries for a moment, and pose a few basic questions: What is more inherently exciting: a straight-ahead 98-yard kickoff return in which the ball carrier goes untouched, or an undulating punt return in which the returner skips around six tacklers, drifts backward 15 yards, traverses the width of the field, and then outruns a safety to the corner of the end zone? And what is less exciting than a touchback — which, given the leg strength of most collegiate kickers these days, is often the end result? And what would be more exhilarating than putting a frantic comeback attempt in the hands of a quarterback rather than the random permutations of an oblong spheroid when launched by foot from a tee?

Think about football as it was in 1961. It's barely recognizable. (Joe Paterno was merely an assistant coach.) Every radical change in the history of sports sounded like heresy when it was proposed. "I say, let's evolve, let the chips fall where they may," a powerful man once said, and that powerful man just happened to be Tyler Durden.

At some point, the NFL and the NCAA are going to have to address the well-documented evidence that playing football is associated with crippling mental-and-physical-health consequences for a significant portion of participants. It has nothing to do with "pussifying the game" or any of the other traditional responses to investigating ways of making the game safer for players: it is a matter of health. It isn't reasonable to continue putting the well-being of players at risk because fans have developed a taste for watching people take violent, devastating hits.

People enjoy watching players take huge hits, many of which lead to concussions, because that's the direction the sport has taken. If that component of the game can be mitigated, I suspect that fan preferences will adapt.

The bottom line is that football players are dying young and are subject to various mental-health disorders later in life because of how violent the game is. If there are policies available to the NFL/NCAA to reduce the severity and frequency of these kinds of outcomes, they should be strongly considered. That a small portion of football players -- stars in the NFL -- are extremely-highly compensated is not a valid justification for ignoring this issue.

Unfathomably terrible idea. It needs to be killed with fire. Nuked from orbit. Whatever clever catch phrase is necessary. The argument that there are too many touchbacks is then followed up by the argument that there are too many injuries on kickoffs. :huh:

Having a kicker who can constantly put the ball into the end zone on kickoffs is a highly underrated commodity. Not every team has that advantage. The ones that don't often are playing from the wrong side of a field position game. That's football. If they do the punt thing, it puts much more emphasis on finding a good punter.

At some point, the NFL and the NCAA are going to have to address the well-documented evidence that playing football is associated with crippling mental-and-physical-health consequences for a significant portion of participants. It has nothing to do with "pussifying the game" or any of the other traditional responses to investigating ways of making the game safer for players: it is a matter of health. It isn't reasonable to continue putting the well-being of players at risk because fans have developed a taste for watching people take violent, devastating hits.

People enjoy watching players take huge hits, many of which lead to concussions, because that's the direction the sport has taken. If that component of the game can be mitigated, I suspect that fan preferences will adapt.

The bottom line is that football players are dying young and are subject to various mental-health disorders later in life because of how violent the game is. If there are policies available to the NFL/NCAA to reduce the severity and frequency of these kinds of outcomes, they should be strongly considered. That a small portion of football players -- stars in the NFL -- are extremely-highly compensated is not a valid justification for ignoring this issue.

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All athletes put themselves at risk and know that going into it - they know the risks of the sport and that is why they are paid millions of dollars to participate.

If there were not hits in football, it would be much less appealing and would die out.

Humans are drawn to gladiator style events - that is why football, boxing, mma, have all been huge, and why you dont see more darts and bowling on TV.

All athletes put themselves at risk and know that going into it - they know the risks of the sport and that is why they are paid millions of dollars to participate.

If there were not hits in football, it would be much less appealing and would die out.

Humans are drawn to gladiator style events - that is why football, boxing, mma, have all been huge, and why you dont see more darts and bowling on TV.

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Athletes are paid millions of dollars because we have a cultural fixation on sports and there is a limited supply of athletes who can compete at the most competitive level. I don't think that their compensation has much to do with the violence inherent in football: basketball has a fraction of the aggressive, potentially-injurious amount of contact that football has, while baseball has practically none, and stars in those sports generally make more than football players.

I am not proposing to eliminate violence from football, but when there are options to mitigate injury risk by reconfiguring the most dangerous parts of the game, they should be pursued.